Tony Curtis, the Bronx tailor's son who became a 1950s movie heartthrob and then a respected actor with such films as "Sweet Smell of Success," "The Defiant Ones" and "Some Like It Hot," has died. He was 85.

After a series of frivolous movies that exploited his handsome physique and appealing personality, Curtis moved to more substantial roles, starting in 1957 in the harrowing show business tale "Sweet Smell of Success."

In 1958, "The Defiant Ones" brought him an Academy Award nomination as best actor for his portrayal of a white racist escaped convict handcuffed to a black escapee, Sidney Poitier. The following year, he donned women's clothing and sparred with Marilyn Monroe in one of the most acclaimed film comedies ever, Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot."

"He was great fun to work with. He had a great sense of humor, wonderful ad-libs. We had the best of times. He was a very fine actor," Sir Roger Moore, the former Bond star who worked with Curtis on the television show "The Persuaders!," told Britain's Sky News.

"I shall miss him. I find it very difficult to sum up my emotions here in a couple of seconds."

Asked in a 2008 interview with Matt Lauer on NBC News' TODAY if his good looks were a blessing or a curse, Curtis drew laughs by saying "I never found them a curse. No, I loved it."

The interview came as Curtis was promoting his book, "American Prince: A Memoir."

'Not ready to settle down'
His first wife was actress Janet Leigh of "Psycho" fame; actress Jamie Lee Curtis is their daughter.

"My father leaves behind a legacy of great performances in movies and in his paintings and assemblages," Jamie Lee Curtis said in a statement Thursday. "He leaves behind children and their families who loved him and respected him and a wife and in-laws who were devoted to him. He also leaves behind fans all over the world."

In addition to movies, Curtis secured a place in popular culture, appearing on the cover of The Beatles's "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club" album and by voicing the character "Stony Curtis" on the cartoon "The Flintstones."

In later years, he returned to film and television as a character actor after battling drug and alcohol abuse. His brash optimism returned, and he allowed his once-shiny black hair to turn silver. He also became a painter whose canvasses are displayed in galleries around the world.

"I'm not ready to settle down like an elderly Jewish gentleman, sitting on a bench and leaning on a cane," he said at 60. "I've got a helluva lot of living to do."

Curtis perfected his craft in forgettable films such as "Francis," "I Was a Shoplifter," "No Room for the Groom" and "Son of Ali Baba."

He first attracted critical notice as Sidney Falco, the press agent seeking favor with a sadistic columnist, played by Burt Lancaster, in the 1957 classic "Sweet Smell of Success."

In her book "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," Pauline Kael wrote that in the film, "Curtis grew up into an actor and gave the best performance of his career."

Other prestigious films followed: Stanley Kubrick's "Spartacus," "Captain Newman, M.D.," "The Vikings," "Kings Go Forth," "Operation Petticoat" and "Some Like It Hot." He also found time to do a voice acting gig as his prehistoric lookalike, Stony Curtis, in an episode of "The Flintstones."

Grateful for 'supportive' fans"I think it has nothing to do with good performances or bad performances," he told The Washington Post in 2002. "After the number of movies I made where I thought there should be some acknowledgment, there was nothing from the Academy."

"My happiness and privilege is that my audience around the world is supportive of me, so I don't need the Academy."

In 2000, an American Film Institute survey of the funniest films in history ranked "Some Like It Hot" at No. 1. Curtis — famously imitating Cary Grant's accent — and Jack Lemmon play jazz musicians who dress up as women to escape retribution after witnessing a gangland massacre.

Monroe was their co-star, and he and Lemmon were repeatedly kept waiting as Monroe lingered in her dressing room out of fear and insecurity. Curtis fumed over her unprofessionalism. When someone remarked that it must be thrilling to kiss Monroe in the film's love scenes, the actor snapped, "It's like kissing Hitler." In later years, his opinion of Monroe softened, and in interviews he praised her unique talent.

In 2002, Curtis toured in "Some Like It Hot" — a revised and retitled version of the 1972 Broadway musical "Sugar," which was based on the film. In the touring show, the actor graduated to the role of Osgood Fielding III, the part played in the movie by Joe E. Brown.

After his star faded in the late 1960s, Curtis shifted to lesser roles. With jobs harder to find, he fell into drug and alcohol addiction.

"From 22 to about 37, I was lucky," Curtis told Interview magazine in the 1980s, "but by the middle '60s, I wasn't getting the kind of parts I wanted, and it kind of soured me. ... But I had to go through the drug inundation before I was able to come to grips with it and realize that it had nothing to do with me, that people weren't picking on me."

He recovered in the early '80s after a 30-day treatment at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage.

Curtis's struggles"Mine was a textbook case," Curtis said in a 1985 interview. "My life had become unmanageable because of booze and dope. Work became a strain and a struggle. Because I didn't want to face the challenge, I simply made myself unavailable."

One role during that era of struggle did bring him an Emmy nomination: his portrayal of David O. Selznick in the TV movie "The Scarlett O'Hara War," in 1980.

His health remained vigorous, though he did get heart bypass surgery in 1994.

Curtis took a fatherly pride in daughter Jamie Lee's success. They were estranged for a long period, then reconciled. "I understand him better now," she said, "perhaps not as a father but as a man."

He also had five other children. Daughters Kelly, also with Leigh, and Allegra, with second wife Christine Kaufmann, also became actresses. His other wives were Leslie Allen, Lisa Deutsch and Jill VandenBerg, whom he married in 1998.

Moore said the news was "very sad, sad for Jill, his wife. She adored him."

He had married Janet Leigh in 1951, when they were both rising young stars; they divorced in 1963.

"Tony and I had a wonderful time together; it was an exciting, glamorous period in Hollywood," Leigh, who died in 2004, once said. "A lot of great things happened, most of all, two beautiful children."

Beginnings of a star
Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx on June 3, 1925, the son of Hungarian Jews who had emigrated to the United States after World War I. His father, Manny Schwartz, had yearned to be an actor, but work was hard to find with his heavy accent. He settled for tailoring jobs, moving the family repeatedly as he sought work.

"I was always the new kid on the block, so I got beat up by the other kids," Curtis recalled in 1959. "I had to figure a way to avoid getting my nose broken. So I became the crazy new kid on the block."

In the 2008 TODAY show interview, he also talked about his tumultuous childhood with a mother who struggled with mental illness. "She slapped me around for no reason," he recalled, but the actor said he still loved her.

His sidewalk histrionics helped avoid beatings and led to acting in plays at a settlement house. He also grew to love movies. "My whole culture as a boy was movies," he said. "For 11 cents, you could sit in the front row of a theater for 10 hours, which I did constantly."

After serving in the Pacific during World War II and being wounded at Guam, he returned to New York and studied acting under the G.I. Bill. He appeared in summer stock theater and on the Borscht Circuit in the Catskills. Then an agent lined up an audition with a Universal-International talent scout. In 1948, at 23, he signed a seven-year contract with the studio, starting at $100 a week.

Most popular

Bernie Schwartz sounded too Jewish for a movie actor, so the studio gave him a new name: Anthony Curtis, taken from his favorite novel, "Anthony Adverse," and the Anglicized name of a favorite uncle. After his eighth film, he became Tony Curtis.

The studio helped smooth the rough edges off the ambitious young actor. The last to go was his street-tinged Bronx accent.

Curtis pursued another career as an artist, creating Matisse-like still lifes with astonishing speed. "I'm a recovering alcoholic," he said in 1990 as he concluded a painting in 40 minutes in the garden of the Bel-Air Hotel. "Painting has given me such a great pleasure in life, helped me to recover."

The actor's website quotes him as saying, "I still make movies but I'm not that interested any more. I paint all the time." It notes that his paintings command more than $50,000 and hang in galleries around the world.

He also turned to writing, producing a 1977 novel, "Kid Cody and Julie Sparrow" and 1993's "Tony Curtis: The Autobiography" in addition to his 2008 memoir.

Video: Remembering Hollywood legend Tony Curtis

Transcript of: Remembering Hollywood legend Tony Curtis

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor (Washington, DC):Seems like we've been saying goodbye to too many of the people who've entertained us over the years. Tonight we have another farewell.
Tony Curtis
has died. He was 85. He was the son of a tailor in the
Bronx
. He was first known in
Hollywood
for his good looks, and then later for his talent. He was durable and prolific, and he was unique, and moviegoers loved him over six decades. Tonight,
NBC
's
George Lewis
has a look back.

GEORGE LEWIS reporting:When you think of
Tony Curtis
, one of the immortal images is him in drag opposite
Jack Lemmon
in the classic comedy "
Some Like It Hot
."

LEWIS:As an actor,
Curtis
was not afraid of taking on risky roles.

LEWIS:In "
The Defiant Ones
," playing a white, racist escaped convict chained to a black man,
Sidney Poitier
, he was nominated for an
Academy Award
.

Mr. LEONARD MALTIN (Film Critic and Historian):Tony Curtis
got famous for his good looks and his great physique, and then turned out to be a really good actor.

LEWIS:Born
Bernard Schwartz
to immigrant parents in the
Bronx
, he used those good looks to leap from poverty to stardom.

LEWIS:But early on, critics ridiculed his misplaced
New York accent
.

LEWIS:His first of six wives was his "Houdini" co-star
Janet Leigh
. They are the parents of actress
Jamie Lee Curtis
.
Tony Curtis
became an artist in his latter years, saying he used painting as part of his therapy to recover from addictions to alcohol and cocaine.

Mr. CURTIS:And I
knew I was going to die if I continued, but I didn't know how to stop.

LEWIS:And as for his legacy, after 150 films...

Mr. CURTIS:You've got to die before they say something nice about you. Looking good is the best revenge.

LEWIS:Actually, he'll be remembered for a whole lot more than that.
George Lewis
, NBC News,
Los Angeles
.

After serving in the Pacific during World War II and being wounded at Guam, Tony Curtis returned to New York and studied acting under the G.I. Bill. He appeared in summer stock theater and on the Borscht Circuit in the Catskills. Then an agent lined up an audition with a Universal-International talent scout. In 1948, at 23, he signed a seven-year contract with the studio, starting at $100 a week.
(AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Curtis was born Bernie Schwartz, a name studio executives thought sounded too Jewish for a movie actor. So they gave him a new name: Anthony Curtis, taken from his favorite novel, "Anthony Adverse," and the Anglicized name of a favorite uncle. After his eighth film, he became Tony Curtis.
(Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Curtis, circa 1960. Asked in a 2008 interview with Matt Lauer on the TODAY show if his good looks were a blessing or a curse, Curtis drew laughs by saying "I never found them a curse. No, I loved it."
(Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Curtis and Leigh with their daughters Kelly, 2 1/2, and newborn Jamie Lee in Hollywood, Calif., on Jan. 16, 1959. He had married Leigh in 1951, when they were both rising young stars; they divorced in 1963.
(AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Marilyn Monroe was their co-star in "Some Like It Hot," and Curtis and Lemmon were repeatedly kept waiting as Monroe lingered in her dressing room out of fear and insecurity. Curtis fumed over her unprofessionalism. When someone remarked that it must be thrilling to kiss Monroe in the film's love scenes, the actor snapped, "It's like kissing Hitler."
(AFP - Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Curtis in 1965. In addition to "Some Like It Hot," Curtis also starred in "Sweet Smell of Success," "Captain Newman, M.D.," "The Vikings," "Kings Go Forth" and "Operation Petticoat." He also found time to do a voice acting gig as his prehistoric lookalike, Stony Curtis, in an episode of "The Flintstones."
(AP)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Curtis poses with his daughter, actress Jamie Lee Curtis, on Jan. 1, 1991. Curtis took a fatherly pride in his daughter's success. They were estranged for a long period, then reconciled. "I understand him better now," she said, "perhaps not as a father but as a man."
(Time & Life Pictures via Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation

Curtis, author of "American Prince: A Memoir," presents his book in the Millenaris Culture Center of Budapest during an event of the 16th International Book Festival on April 25, 2009.
(Gergely Botar / AFP - Getty Images)
ShareBack to slideshow navigation